"____" caused how much in damages? (economics)

[furt]

When they calculate the damages from something like the worm/virus last week or natural disasters, do they count by net or gross?

I'm finishing up a summer in tech support, and there were a ton of people who were calling in here last week, with the result that overtime was offered, and a lot of people are gonna have bigger checks. I'd also expect that Norton and other computer-security firms have had a spike in their sales. Similarly, it sounds ghoulish, but hurricanes must be great for the roofing industry, and tornados must lead to new homes being built ...

I'm guessing the new economic activity resulting from disasters, etc, does not get factored in when they say "Hurricane Louie caused X millions in damages" ... but why not? Leaving out the human toll, is it possible that some disasters can even have a net beneficial effect on an economy?

[MaryEFoo]

WAG: they (media, commercial security, gov't security) take the biggest estimates they can of any factors they can.

Remember how high the "street value" of pot was, when busts were announced?

back when the per-drink bar value of alcohol was never commented on, the rare times untaxed booze arrests were publicized

Wow, from WAG to hijack in three sentences...heck, submitting it anyway.

[MaryEFoo]

Possible net beneficent effect--Yes this could be. I remember something about re-built industries (after WWII?) getting a competitive jump over places where the factories had never been bombed.

And some forests apparently work better for being burned over every couple of generations.

Redevelopment (slum clearance) probably works like that, financially.

Back to the worm, comment has been made in the computer security industry that show-offs and vandals have been playing with viruses etc for years, with very positive results in developing competence among security professionals as well as patching vulnerabilities. PCs and the Net would be incredibly more vulnerable to deliberate, serious damage by hostile nations' attacks without that.